Black Magic
by TheBadIdeaBears
Summary: Maka's got a crush, but what lengths will she go to for Soul to notice her? Songfic for the song 'Black Magic' by Little Mix.


**Hey there, it's Pandora here with a little Soul Eater fic just in time for Valentine's Day. Holly asked me for a songfic using 'Black Magic' by Little Mix as inspiration. At first I was very unhappy about this but now the song has grown on me a lot and I quite like it. :P I hope you all enjoy this!**

* * *

As we stepped through the door to the Death Room and started going through the tunnel of archways towards where the headmaster awaited us, I brushed dust off the sleeves of my jacket.

"Why bother?" asked Soul, who still looked like he had only just crawled out of the mineshaft. "We might as well leave it and shower later; it's not like he's going to care."

"It's making me sneeze..." I said absently, also clapping dust off my skirt.

"Well here..." He paused and reached out, stopping me under one of the archways so he could help swipe more dirt from the back of my clothes. I felt my cheeks redden at the touch of his hand on my shoulder, my back and brushing just above my bottom. I was glad he couldn't see my face (or that he was trying to get the dust off the _front_ of my jacket) and busied myself with my skirt some more.

I'm going to be honest here: I was crushing. _Hard_.

I wasn't sure exactly when it began (and it was a lot longer before I was willing to admit anything to myself about it) but I knew that it was there. I'd spent enough time lying in bed thinking about it anyway. I never reacted like I did around anyone else: whenever I saw Soul these days my heart would flutter and my stomach would flip-flop around inside me. Soul Resonance felt... different lately. We were more used to it now, so maybe I was just thinking of it differently, but whenever we did and I felt his soul I felt a kind of yearning.

 _Not_ that he ever noticed.

He finished brushing off my back and put a hand to my shoulder. I turned to face him again and he looked me up and down.

"Looks better to me," he said, giving me a smile.

I tried a small smile of my own, trying to encourage my pulse to calm down. He shrugged and took off his jacket and gave it a shake to get the worst of the dust and dirt off it. I steeled myself and reached out, getting some large chunks of plaster out of his white hair. He nodded appreciatively and pulled his jacket back on so that we could go see Death.

The headmaster was in his room as usual, talking to someone through his mirror. We waited until he was done and then Soul stepped forward.

"Sir, we're back from dealing with the kishin in South America," he said lazily.

Death turned to face us. "Ah, very good," he said. "What happened?"

We relayed a report of what had happened: how we had chased down the kishin to an abandoned mine and then it had caused a cave-in, trapping us halfway down a mineshaft. In the next few hours we had tried (and failed) to get out, spent a lot of time feeling frustrated and eventually had to piss off the kishin enough that it actually came back to finish us off... whereupon we destroyed it.

"Hmm, an interesting tactic!" said Death. "Well done both of you."

"Actually, sir, it was Soul's idea," I said. "I didn't do anything out of the ordinary."

"Maka, you obliterated the monster," said Soul. "Don't sell yourself short."

I flushed. I didn't want to go into it but it really was only Soul's idea. When the mine caved in we'd got stuck in one very small space. It was embarrassing but... with Soul's body pushed up against mine I hadn't been able to think straight enough to come up with any kind of sensible plan. If I had managed to stay level-headed I'm sure we would have got out sooner but... I hadn't.

I sighed. "Do you need us for anything else sir?" I asked Death. "I really need a shower."

Death waved one huge hand. "No, please, feel free to go," he said.

We turned and started back through the corridor of archways that led to the door, nearly halfway along before we heard a voice behind us.

"Maka, sweetie, you're home!"

I turned to see my father behind us, grinning at me.

"Hi dad. What do you want?"

He looked crestfallen. "Only to see my daughter when she came back from being away," he pouted.

"Okay, well, you've seen me."

He looked me up and down. "You're very dusty."

"Yeah well, a mine fell on us..." I glanced sideways at Soul, who was rolling his eyes.

"A mine?! Are you okay?" he asked, looking panicked.

"Yes, dad."

"You didn't get hurt?"

"No dad."

"Are you sure?"

"Actually come to think of it I think I actually died and this is my eternal torment."

He pouted again. "It's a sad day when a daddy and his daughter can't be happy together."

"Yeah, well... I'm going dad, I need a shower."

"Take care, sweetie!"

"Your dad gets weirder every day, Maka," murmured Soul as we went through the large door into the corridor outside.

"Don't I know it?"

* * *

We walked out of the DWMA, down the long stairway and into Death City. Soul tilted back his head to enjoy the warmth of the sunshine on his face, a smile coming to his lips as we continued down the road. Normally we'd have been de-briefing each other at this point, talking through what happened, what we did well, what we could have done better, what Death said to us... But between the summer heat and me feeling... well, weird, there was nothing but silence for a while.

"Are you going to the summer ball on Friday?" he eventually asked.

"Er... I hadn't really thought about it," I said. It was a lie. I'd thought about it plenty. And come to no conclusions because all I wanted was to be going with _him_.

"Well what are you thinking about it now?" he asked as we turned a corner.

 _Is he asking me to go to it?_

"Everyone's going, it'll be cool to hang out."

 _Guess not._

"I'm... not sure," I said finally.

"You can't stay home alone _every_ night reading," he teased. "Come on, it'll be fun."

We drew level with our building and Soul slowed his walk to a stop.

"Maybe," I said. The word felt wobbly, like the fast pace my heart was thrumming was making me waver over the syllables. "I'll see what I'm doing."

Soul grinned. "Cool, it wouldn't be right without you there."

I felt a flush settle on my cheeks and was relieved that he looked away, down the street.

"I think I might go see Black*Star," he said. "Maybe see if he wants to hit the gym. No point going after a shower..."

"Okay, I guess I'll see you later then?"

"Yeah, see you later." He headed off down the road towards Black*Star and Tsubaki's place. After a bit he turned around and called, "Also nice work on that kishin, we really kicked its butt!"

"Hell yeah we did!" I called back, laughing.

He turned away again and soon rounded a corner, out of sight. I stayed standing, watching the corner.

 _He's not interested; there's no point trying._

 _But what if he is?_

 _Yeah because that invitation_ really _sounded like a romantic one._

 _There's nothing to lose by going._

"So why aren't you two together yet?"

I looked around to try and find the source of the voice, eventually looking down and seeing a black cat wearing a pointed hat looking up at me.

"Hi Blair," I sighed, looking back down the road again. "What do you want?"

"Nothing," she responded, still sounding chirpy. "Just wondered why you weren't getting on that."

"Not that it's anything to do with you," I said. "But it's not going to happen. He's not interested."

"Hmm... we could remedy that..."

There was a light breeze and puff of pink smoke from beside me and then Blair stood there in her human form... completely naked.

"Oh my god, why do you do that in public?!"

"Where else am I supposed to do it?"

"Inside!"

This quickly became an order as well as an answer; I grabbed her arm and dragged her into the building, up the stairs and into the apartment, shutting the door behind us.

"If it's not useless dads it's idiotic weapon partners, if it's not idiotic weapons partners it's naked cat ladies..." I grumbled to myself while Blair went to her room and came back in a dress.

"Anyway, what were you saying before?" I asked.

Blair looked confused. "Doing it in public?"

"No, about Soul." My face burned even asking for Blair's advice but I was admittedly intrigued.

"Oh, just that we could maybe change his opinion of you, if you really think he's not interested," she said brightly, curling up on the sofa.

"He's not."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

I looked at her stony-faced. "Yes, I'm sure. I know Soul, he doesn't even think of me as a girl, especially a girl he wants to... to..." I trailed off and groaned. "This sucks."

"It doesn't have to," she replied.

"Well I don't know what your plan is but I really don't see any way this is going to happen."

"Gosh you really are pessimistic aren't you?" she said, head cocking to one side. "You go out and fight demons and witches every day but you don't think you can do this?"

"Yeah that sounds about right," I sighed.

"Well I won't have that!" She sat upright on the edge of her seat. "I can help you."

"How?"

"Well I do know some magic," she said with a wicked grin. "I can brew you a potion that will make Soul _notice_ you. I can cast a spell that makes you completely _irresistible_ to him. I could enchant him so he'd do _anything_ for you." Her eyes widened with excitement.

I stared at her. "Okay... that sounds kind of..."

"Brilliant?" she preened.

"I was going to say drastic," I said. "And... also kind of fake. I've never seen you doing any of this stuff, so how do I know it'll work?"

"Well it worked for the others," she said. "I have an office, you know."

"Where?"

"Well since I moved here the pumpkin was looking kinda empty and sad so I decided to use it as a place to grow my own business!" she said. "I help people out with little fixes and stuff."

"And this has worked for them?"

"Yeah! Well... mostly... Some of them... not so much..." She waved a hand. "But those were more trial runs, and the instructions were difficult..."

"Riiight..." I raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not convinced."

"Well you don't have to," she said. "But if you want to, here's my card..." She reached into her cleavage and pulled out a card decorated purple with yellow stars and pink hearts around the words 'Blair's Got the Recipe'. As I read it, she stood and stretched.

"I'm going to take a long, hot bath," she said, wandering off to the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

I stood there contemplating the card for a minute, turning over the idea and the offer in my mind, but then snapped back to attention when I heard the tap start to run. I was still covered in dust and dirt. And Blair's baths took _hours_.

"Wait, _Blair_!"

* * *

Yeah I went to see her. Like you wouldn't.

After classes (and a lot of thinking) the next day I walked through town to Blair's 'office' – the pumpkin house she used to live in before Soul and I encountered her. There was a hastily-made picket sign erected outside to advertise Blair's services – evidently less effort had gone into it than the cards. As I approached, the door opened and a girl left; a dreamy, contented smile on her face and blue sparkles spiralling and darting around her head. I watched her go and went inside, finding Blair sitting behind a desk and surrounded by shelves bearing bottles, jars and books. Through a doorway I could see another room where a selection of cauldrons filled with different coloured liquids were brewing and bubbling.

Blair looked up as I came in. "Maka, it's nice to see you! Though I thought you said you weren't interested?"

I shrugged. "I came to find out what exactly you had to offer."

She grinned. "I knew you would."

"Yeah yeah, we can go over that later," I said, waving one hand dismissively. "Just give me a quick run-down of stuff and I'll tell you if I want anything."

She gestured to a door off the room we were in. "Let's step into my consultation room and we can discuss your options."

 _Seriously, a 'consultation room'?_

She stood up from her desk and ushered me into the next room, where a sofa and armchair were set up. I flopped onto the sofa while Blair curled up in the armchair.

"So, what can I do you for?" she asked, magicking two glasses of iced lemonade out of thin air and handing one to me.

"I uh... I want Soul to notice me." I drew patterns in the condensation on the glass to try and ignore the heat in my face.

"And why's that?" asked Blair.

I looked at her. "What do you mean? You know why."

She smiled. "I know. But you need to say it out loud. I can't help you until you admit what you want to yourself and me, properly and aloud."

 _Huh, maybe she has some hidden depths._

I sighed. "Fine. I like Soul. I like him _a lot_. I stay up at night thinking about him. I want to hug him. I want to... kiss him. I want him to notice me like I notice him."

Blair looked smug and took a sip of her lemonade.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh nothing, just I think it's cute. But, to get down to business: I could cast a spell," she said, picking up a book off a side table and opening it.

"What kind of spell?"

"Well I could make you more beautiful or..." She flicked through the book. "Ooh, I could cast a thing to tie you both together forever..."

"That seems... permanent," I said.

"Well yeah that's what 'forever' means," she giggled. "But you think you'd prefer something a bit more temporary?"

I shrugged. "I... I don't know."

"Well I don't think he needs more than a gentle nudge in your direction really," she said.

"You think?"

"Yes."

She said it with such certainty that I had no retort. _Only a gentle nudge? I don't think he even registers me as being female half the time._

Blair put down the book again. "I don't think any of these will be right; I have some good potions though..." She picked up a pink fluffy notebook and opened it to reveal pages and pages of handwritten notes with information about different potions: love potions, luck potions, potions to raise happiness or confidence. Each was followed by notes about people who had bought the services from her.

"Wow these are actually pretty popular," I said, impressed despite myself.

"Yeah the love potions always do well," she replied. "Mostly girls but sometimes guys, they come from all over Death City. Everyone's always looking for romance and I'm happy to give it to them!"

"Wow," I said again. "So what would you recommend?"

"This or this," she said, opening to a particular page and pointing to two different potions. "This one is for increasing attraction between people – it's good for getting the initial spark but it wears off quite fast. This other one is essentially designed to make someone sit up and appreciate what is in front of them and help them see it in a more favourable light. It lasts a bit longer and then his feelings might just grow from there."

"What are the pros and cons for each?" I asked.

We discussed the potions at length before eventually deciding on the second one – mostly at Blair's suggestion. She took me into her brewery and set up a small cauldron, in which she made the potion. It was a soft mauve colour with a light sheen of steam rolling across its surface.

"So how do we get him to drink it?" I asked as Blair decanted the potion into a small glass vial.

"That's easy: I'm waitressing at the summer ball. Your dad suggested we could make some extra money and get promotion for Chupa-Cabra's by coming and serving mocktails," Blair explained. "I'll slip it in his drink."

* * *

As I was getting ready for the ball on Friday evening at Tsubaki's place I felt a weight on me. It had been pressing ever since I had gone to see Blair two days before but I had been ignoring it until now, hoping I could just forget it and get excited about the party.

I was having second thoughts.

What if the potion didn't work and Soul felt nothing for me? What if it never went anywhere and we just stayed in this stupid partners and friends thing we were in now? What if I never stopped feeling this way around him and stagnated alone while he went off and found someone else?

Or worse (in a way), what if it did work and I knew his feelings for me weren't genuine?

"Maka, are you okay?"

I looked over to Tsubaki, who was putting in earrings by the mirror, and nodded.

"I'm fine," I said, picking up my hairbrush.

"You look a little flushed, did you catch the sun?" she came over and surveyed my face, gently running a fingertip along my cheekbone.

I latched onto the excuse. "Yeah I think I might have," I said. "Been outside too much I guess..."

Soon we left, meeting up with Liz and Patty on the way to the DWMA, where we climbed the immense stairway up to the school. Chains of paper lanterns were hung up to guide us to the school gardens, where a band was playing and a dance floor had been set up in the middle. Around the edges of the grounds, a little way ahead of the tree-line, there were fairground stalls offering games and food.

"Ohhh I want to win a bear!" Patty said, dragging Liz away to a stall covered in multi-coloured teddy bears and me and Tsubaki drifted over to a stall selling fat bags of candyfloss.

"Guess who!"

A pair of hands appeared from behind Tsubaki, apparently trying to reach her face, but not able to quite reach high enough, they settled on the front of her dress.

"Black*Star!"

Tsubaki whipped around, Black*Star's hands coming to rest on her hips as she leaned down to give him a kiss. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and laughed instead.

"Guys get a room," I said, and they broke apart.

"Sorry," laughed Tsubaki with a little flush to her cheeks.

"Did Soul find you?" asked Black*Star.

"He was looking for me?" I asked.

"Yeah we got here a little while ago and he said he wanted to find you to say hi," he said.

"Oh right," I said. "I should probably go look for him then..."

"He was hanging out near the crockery smash when I last saw him!" Black*Star called after me.

I walked away, searching the crowd for Soul's white shock of hair. I still felt an ache in my tummy at the prospect of going through with the plan to slip him the potion. Every question I had asked myself over the last couple of days was still racing around my head when I caught sight of a head of purple waves.

"Blair!"

She turned, a tray of drinks held in her hands.

"Hi," she grinned. "I've got the potion all ready for Soul when I see him..." She reached into her cleavage to reveal a vial of mauve liquid attached to a dainty chain around her neck. "Have you seen him?"

"Not yet," I said. "Blair I don't know if –"

Over her shoulder, I caught sight of Soul walking past, apparently searching the crowd. I felt an ache in my chest and knew what my decision was.

"He's over there," I said. "Just make sure you're subtle."

"Oh don't worry," she said cheerily, emptying the potion into one of the glasses on her tray. "I can be so subtle he won't even realise I'm here!"

"Blair that dress is so low-cut I can nearly see your belly-button."

"Yeah so the potion bit will be really subtle, because he has a distraction!" she giggled, shaking her shoulders a little so that her breasts jiggled. "Anyway, I'll go get this to Soul; here..."

She picked up a glass of blue liquid and handed it to me before sashaying away to follow Soul. I took some time to wander around the ball for a while, watching the events around me and sipping at my drink. It tasted better than I had necessarily expected it to. I was just about to try and win a goldfish when I heard a familiar voice.

"Maka? Maka!"

I turned to see Soul dashing towards me, an empty glass in his hand and a huge smile on his face.

"Hey!" I called back, grinning as he caught up with me and a soaring feeling in my chest. I felt... different to how I had been feeling around him. The grin wouldn't leave my face and instead of an ominous fluttering in my tummy I felt a giddiness I wasn't familiar with.

"You okay?" he asked, his red eyes meeting my green.

"Yeah..." I looked at him and suddenly felt nothing but joy as I leaned in and pressed my lips against his.

As cliché as it sounds, everything around me melted away. After a second I felt Soul kissing me back and his hands came to sit on my waist. I put my hands on his shoulders, lightly brushing the ends of his hair with my fingers. When we broke apart Soul ran his fingers along my jaw and cupped my cheek, looking into my eyes.

"Wow, that was... unexpected..." He couldn't seem to stop grinning and I knew I looked the same. "I thought you'd never –"

I felt a poke to my shoulder and looked round to see Blair standing behind me. I felt a pang – Soul wasn't really interested in me; it was all the potion.

"Oh hey Blair!" said Soul. "Nice dress! I didn't know you'd be here!"

"What's up?" I asked her.

"Err... we may have a teeny tiny problem." She was managing to look both sheepish and pleased.

I looked back at Soul. "Can you excuse us just for a second?"

"Of course..." He kissed me on the hand and let me go, wandering away to look at the goldfish at the stall.

"So hey, looks like you didn't need the potion after all!" Blair said.

I stopped dead. "What?"

Blair laughed. "I never got the potion to him! I was following him and I nearly had him but then someone wanted to say hi and then some blue-haired guy came and took some glasses from me and then I realised one of them was the one he was supposed to get!"

I felt the smile come back to my face, a laugh bubbling out of me. I laughed and laughed, relief washing over me. Soul did like me! Him kissing me back was real, it was all real and all true!

Blair laughed too. "Oh well. At least I know one potion went to the right person tonight!"

"Who's that?" I asked.

"You."

"What?! But I didn't need a love potion!"

"Not a love potion, silly!" she chastised me. "Just a confidence-booster."

I stared at her, open-mouthed.

"I told you, he didn't need more than a nudge," she said. "But you needed a push too."

I laughed once more and pulled Blair into a hug. "Thank you."

"No problem," she said, squeezing me tight.

I felt a tap on my shoulder again and coming out of the hug I saw Soul standing there, holding a plastic bag and grinning.

"I won you something," he said, raising it so I could see a little fish swimming around inside. "Pretty cool, huh?"

I nodded. "I love it, thank you."

I leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

* * *

I didn't think about who might have taken the other potion until I saw Tsubaki sitting on a bench with Black*Star's head in her lap. She was stroking gentle circles into the back of his star-shaped hair and his shoulders were shaking, apparently in tears.

"I just... I never realised before how much I don't appreciate youuuuu!" he cried, descending into sobs.

"You appreciate me just fine, Black*Star!" Tsubaki said desperately. "I feel very appreciated!"

* * *

The rest of the evening went by in a blur of kisses, laughter and chatting. By the time we walked home in the early hours of the morning holding hands, I felt like I was on top of the world. It seemed that sometimes magic had to come from within.


End file.
